Tea seed shells contain tea saponin, tea seed polysaccharide, tea seed protein, etc., which are raw materials for chemical, fertilizer, light industry, food, feed industry products, etc. Tea seed shells can also be made into It can be converted into furfural, activated carbon, etc. Tea shell is also a good edible fungus culture medium. Research shows that camellia saponin also has antibacterial and antioxidant effects.
Tea seed picking
Tea seed trees bloom in autumn and bear fruit next year. The fruits are picked in autumn. Generally, tea seeds are picked before and after the Cold Dew Festival, which indicates that the tea seeds are mature, but some late-ripening tea seeds cannot be picked until after the Frost Descent Festival. If they are picked early, they will not have much oil.
For immature tea seeds, the fruits inside the tea seed husks are pale and yellow in color. Unlike mature camellia seeds, the fruits inside the tea seed husks are plump, large, dark and shiny.
For the same variety, if picked at different times, the oil yield will be very different. Taking the Camellia oleifera variety "Frost Descent Seed" as an example, when picked a dozen days before the "Cold Dew", the seed shell accounts for 46.3, the seed kernel accounts for 53.2, and the tea seed oil content accounts for only 17.9; while after the "Frost Descent" After 5 days of picking, the seed shell accounted for 37.6%, the seed kernel accounted for 62.4%, and the tea seed oil content reached 28.5%.
If picked early, the cones will be immature and the tea seeds will have low oil content and high water content; if picked too late, the cones will crack and the tea seeds will scatter, making it difficult to collect, resulting in waste. Therefore, camellia oleifera fruits should be picked at the right time.
Physical pressing methods of camellia seeds
The physical pressing methods of camellia seed oil mainly include native pressing, low-temperature pressing and screw pressing. In rural areas where tea seeds are produced, local pressing is the main method. The oil produced contains more impurities, is darker in color, and has higher acid value and peroxide value.
The key to low-temperature pressing is that the pressing temperature is 70 to 80°C, which can avoid the darker color of camellia oil and loss of active substances caused by higher temperatures. Before using the screw press to produce camellia oil, the camellia seeds must be shelled in advance to prevent the high temperature in the press chamber from deepening the color of the crude oil and damaging the cake components.
Reference for the above content: Baidu Encyclopedia-Camellia Seed Shell
Reference for the above content: Baidu Encyclopedia-Camellia Seed